Information For Authors

This Journal uses the OJS Journal Management System for the submission and peer review process of manuscripts. Please register as an author and read the author’s guidelines before preparing and making a submission via the system. 

Submissions are encouraged from scholars and reflective practitioners from across the globe; submissions ought to be relevant to the mission, aims and scope of the Journal (see About the Journal). Especially encouraged are submissions from African scholars and professionals working in higher education on the African continent. Submissions dealing with student affairs issues from other contexts (e.g. the African Diaspora, other emerging economies; developed countries) that are transferable to the African context are also considered for publication.

Guidelines and checklist for use prior to preparation and submission of a manuscript:

-  The submission has not been submitted to another journal, is not under consideration by another journal and has not previously been published. Authors who are found to have made parallel submissions will be barred publishing in JSAA. 

-  Submission should be formatted in MS Word, OpenOffice or RTF format, page numbered, single-spaced; using a 12-point font; and all illustrations, figures, and tables are placed within the text at the appropriate points, rather than at the end. Authors are welcome to submit pictures, illustrations etc. to accompany their manuscript.

- The Journal uses the APA7 author-date referencing system.  (For details see our referencing guide here).

-  JSAA is divided into different sections, i.e. Research Article (peer-reviewed); Reflective Practice (peer-reviewed); Dialogue and Campus Report section; Book Reviews section; and Calls and Notices. Please note that different requirements apply:

• Research articles Contributors are encouraged to submit original research-based manuscripts of ca. 5000 words, including all references, notes, tables and figures. Manuscripts should be accompanied by an abstract of approximately 150-200 words. They should be double-spaced and all pages consecutively numbered.
• Reflective practice articles (reflective practitioner accounts) on professional campus practice are peer-reviewed. They are screened and reviewed according to the same criteria as research articles, albeit with a different emphasis. Unlike a research article, they do not need to include an extensive consideration of recent literature and theory, but they must nonetheless comply with standard academic convention and scholarly practice. Reflective practitioner articles must be original, must make a significant empirical contribution and significantly enhance our understanding of student affairs practice within their respective scope and focus. Typical length: 2,500 – 5,000 words. Manuscripts should be accompanied by an abstract of approximately 150-200 words. 
• Book reviews should be between 800 – 1,000 words. Competent reviews of key student affairs books are published at the discretion of the Editorial Executive.
• Letters to the editors, comments and critique, of no more than 2,500 words, are also welcome and are published at the discretion of the editors.
• Proposal for the journal’s Interviews and Dialogue and Campus Report section and Calls and Notices must be submitted through the online system. 

- Upon acceptance, all abstracts are translated and published in a second African academic language. This is typically French in order to encourage greater engagement between the anglophone and francophone African Student Affairs scholars and practitioners. Authors who prefer translation into any other official African language (e.g. Afrikaans, Arabic, Kiswahili, isiZulu, isiXhosa, Portuguese, Sesotho, Setswana) must provide a translation upon acceptance of the article, with a confirmation from a language scholar that the translation is accurate.

- Example articles of research articles and reflective practitioner account articles are available here. 

- All contributions published in the Journal undergo initial screening (vetting) by members of the Editorial Executive. The outcome of editorial vetting can be rejection, request for revision prior to peer review, or appointment of a section editor and advance to peer review.

- The final decision with respect to any processes, acceptance/rejection of manuscripts, and any other decisions impacting the Journal reside with the Editorial Executive, Prof Teboho Moja (Editor-in-chief), Prof Thierry Luescher, and Dr Birgit Schreiber.

 

Review Policy 

Once a manuscript has successfully passed an initial screening (vetting) by the Editorial Executive, a section editor may be appointed and it may be submitted for peer-review . The suitability of articles is evaluated in terms of the following review criteria:

1. Originality: the manuscript offers new, original empirical, conceptual, critical, and/or normative insights and interpretation;
2. Significance: the manuscript makes a significant contribution to the scholarly and/or professional field of student affairs and our understanding thereof;
3. Scholarship: the manuscript reflects sound scholarship,  adheres to the requirements of rigorous academic work, and espouses trustworthy methods, findings and conclusions;
4. Scope and Interest: the manuscript falls within the scope of the Journal and is likely to interest readers and stimulate new or further debate on a key matter in the field;
5. Accessibility: the manuscript is written in such a way as to be accessible to the broad range of readers that JSAA attracts.

NB: Manuscripts accepted for review are double-blind peer-reviewed by at least two scholars with relevant expertise in the field. The editorial and peer review policy of JSAA adheres to the Code of Best Practice in Scholarly Journal Publishing, Editing and Peer Review (Academy of Sciences of SA Council/ASSAf, 2018). 

-  A title page of the manuscript must be submitted separately that clearly shows for which section of the journal the manuscript is submitted, i.e. Research Article (peer-reviewed); Reflective Practice (peer-reviewed); or Book Reviews; the title of the article, name(s) of the author(s) including titles (Dr, Prof.), ORCids, position and professional/institutional affiliations. It must include the contact details (emails, phone) of the corresponding author, as well as the abstract (150-200 words in English), and the keywords.

- The actual manuscript must be submitted blinded in a separate file, without author information, including article type/section, title, abstract, keywords, manuscript text, confirmatory statements (acknowledgements, ethics, conflict of interest), references. 

-  The Journal's default language is English. British English or American English spelling and terminology may be used, but either one should be followed consistently through the contribution.

- Authors can contact the editors if they wish to submit an article in a language other than English. The Journal encourages publication if any official African language but may require support from the authors in order to be able to do so. Articles published in a language other than English will be accompanied by default by an abstract in English.

-  Title and abstract must be concise. In the manuscript, first, second and third-order headings should be clearly distinguishable but not numbered in accordance with APA7. Footnotes should be avoided, but if used, should be placed as endnotes before the references.

- Acknowledgements of people, etc. as well as confirmatory statements on (1) research ethics and ethics clearance and (2) conflicts of interest (e.g. , grants/funds) should be placed in a separate section before the references.

-  Reproduction of copyrighted material: Authors are required to secure permission to reproduce any proprietary text, illustration, table, or other material prior to the submission of a manuscript.

-  References: The description of the Journal’s APA7 referencing style can be found here.

Authors who publish with this Journal agree to the following terms:

1. Authors retain copyright and grant the journal right of first publication with the work simultaneously licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution Share-alike 4.0 International License that allows others to share the work with an acknowledgement of the work's authorship and initial publication in this Journal.
2. Authors may distribute their published articles freely and are able to enter into separate, additional contractual arrangements for the non-exclusive distribution of the Journal's published version of the work (e.g., post it to an institutional repository or publish it in a book), with an acknowledgement of its initial publication in this Journal.
3. Authors are permitted and encouraged to post their work online (e.g., in institutional repositories or on their website) prior to and during the submission process, as it can lead to productive exchanges, as well as earlier and greater citation of published work (see The Effect of Open Access).
4. Authors must declare funding sources if applicable and declare that their research has received ethics clearance from the relevant office/agency/organisation. Confirmatory statements of this nature can be included under separate headings prior to the references (see above).